mccain in troubled times. romney's got to make that case in 2012. >> little different when you're running against an incumbent. right? there's not a direct parallel there. >> look at the transcript. he was running against president bush. that these set of economic policies are wrong and i have a compelling vision. whether he can do that is another story. >> your colleague e.j. deion wrote journalists are in search of defining moments and game changers. by this standard, romney needs to game changer. obama can live quite happily without one. so do you think that mitt romney needs to have a big moment or if he is perceived to have won will at least give republicans some momentum. is that really the most reasonable thing to hope for? >> well, certainly it will. if the race were sort of fixed in time right now, everybody assumes that obama would win. in many ways that's happening because of early voting all right. so romney needs to change the trajectory in some way. now, that washington post is actually good news